Draft of the bond for Steward Jonathan Hastings. 1753 January 15

Mutilated draft of a bond of Steward Jonathan Hastings and Robert Sharp of Brooklyn, Mass. to the President and Fellows of Harvard College for 1,000 pounds.

II. Academic notebook, [ca. 1745]

This paper notebook contains undated and unattributed handwritten summaries and notes from published texts on world history, religion, and natural history, and was presumably kept by William Sever. The first page notes the death of poet Alexander Pope in 1744, constituting the latest date referenced in the notebook. The entries are typically short and offer condensed information on subjects including the histories of England, Japan and Siam; early Christian history; and natural religion.

[Admittatur of Jonathan Townsend (Harvard AB 1741)], 1737

Notebook, in modern hardcover binding, with a handwritten copy of the 1734 College laws in English prepared by Harvard undergraduate Jonathan Townsend and signed by President Edward Holyoke and Fellow Nathan Prince on October 6, 1737.

[Admittatur of Cotton Tufts (Harvard AB 1749)], 1745

Notebook with a handwritten copy of the 1734 College laws in English prepared by Harvard undergraduate Cotton Tufts and signed by President Edward Holyoke, Tutor Belcher Hancock, Fellow Joseph Mayhew, and Tutor Thomas Marsh on November 8, 1745.

Catalogue of freshmen, 1745

List of the matriculating members of the Harvard Class of 1749.

First Floor, Old Harvard Hall 1667-1764, 1935

Floor plan of the first floor of Old Harvard Hall drawn by H.R. Shurtleff in 1935. Includes the hall, kitchen, buttery, and two chambers

Annotated almanac, 1745

Almanac containing calendar pages with sporadic annotations of unidentified measurements and interleaved pages with short handwritten entries about Winthrop's daily activities, and astronomical and meteorological observations. The entries include personal notes about travel, the weather, deaths in the community, notes of public fasts for the Louisbourg expedition (February 28) and the "Indian war" (September 19), and a note of the surrender of Louisbourg (June 17). There is an entry listing the burials and baptisms in Boston by month, with the deaths subdivided for white and black individuals, and notes of "French prisoners" for July and "Fever & flux" for September.

Poem (manuscript copy owned by Jonathan Remington and Benjamin Parker), 1782

Paper notebook lacking covers with a handwritten copy of John Davis's 1781 Commencement poem titled “Poem. ” The verso of the last page is inscribed: “Benj’a Parker’s property Given him by Remington March 4th 1782.” The last page has a Latin phrase, "Finis cum fistilo jig," and the phrase, "He that has [some] hair cannot wear a wig."

Declaration signed by Harvard students to not speak in the vernacular for one year, 1712 August 23

The declaration, handwritten in Latin and signed by members of the junior and sophomore classes (Harvard Classes of 1714 and 1715), promises that the undersigned will not use the vernacular but instead "whenever, at meals, at banquets,...in our rooms, in all our gatherings, wherever and whenever" will speak in Latin, Greek, or Hebrew through the next May. Additional Latin text appears on both the front and back of the document. The original is accompanied by a typed transcription and two partial handwritten translations. Note at top of original: "Script. Leonardo Dowding, Composit. a Tho. Foxcroft."

Notebook of Tristram Gilman, 1757-1761

The small volume holds the notebook of Tristram Gilman interleaved on unlined pages in a printed engagement calendar. The original leather cover accompanies the notebook, but is no longer attached. The inside covers of the original leather binding are filled with scribbled words and notes. The volume holds a variety of handwritten notes including account information, transcriptions of biblical passages and related observations, travel information, community news, weather, and astronomy. The volumes does not follow a chronological order, and instead seems to have been repurposed at various times.

Manuscript copy of the book of Harvard, 1767

The pamphlet-sized manuscript includes "The Book of Harvard" signed "Joseph Cummings, scriptis, Janr 7th 1767," an untitled two-page essay beginning, "Wisdom is ye Crown of life" and ending "Draught of Knowledge, let us with a laudable ambition, strive to excel each other in an ardent pursuit of Learning, then shall we raise to ourselves a monument of honest fame, which shall perish only in ye general wreak of nature," and on the last page, "An Accrostick" beginning "Jangling & Discord are thy Souls delight" and spelling out JAMES MITCHEL VARNUM dated July 3, 1767 and signed "The 3d edition revised & improved by Gove & Fogg."